China: “United States is guilty of bullying”

China accuses the United States of “bullying” in the trade war between the economic superpowers. Also, according to the Chinese state news agency Xinhua, no trade talks are possible between Beijing and Washington as long as the Americans threaten new charges.

Today, new import duties issued by the US and China on each other’s goods have entered into force. These are American tariffs on 200 billion dollars of Chinese goods and Chinese taxes on American goods worth 60 billion dollars. These come on top of sanctions on 50 billion of goods that the two countries previously imposed on each other.

Trade war
Xinhua refers in his reports on the trade war to a research report from the Chinese government. According to that report, Washington is distorting the facts in the American-Chinese trade feud. Beijing also accuses the Americans of intimidating other countries, partly by threatening import duties.

“The door for negotiations is always open, but they can only take place in an environment of mutual respect. They are not possible if there is a threat of new charges,” Xinhua said.

US President Donald Trump has already threatened with even more charges against China. This involves levies on a further 267 billion dollars of goods from Chinese manufacture. If all charges that threaten Trump are actually implemented, it would be almost the entire export from China to the US.

Abuse
Trump is annoyed by the large Chinese trade surplus with the US. He also accuses China of abusing American intellectual property for his own gain.

The Honkong Stock Exchange today recorded more than 1 percent lower.